Crispen Kulinji spent much of last week wondering whether he would be tortured before he was murdered. The omens were bad. When the Zimbabwean army came for Kulinji two years ago they blindfolded and handcuffed him. The soldiers then proceeded to beat him and subjected him to a series of electric shocks that left him permanently scarred.

The two truckloads of troops loyal to the Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe, who had descended on Kulinji's home in the capital city's district of Mabvuku proceeded to subject his mother to horrific sexual torture, and to beat his sister so brutally that she is still fighting for her life.

A prominent member of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the political organisation opposed to Mugabe's regime, Kulinji was dragged away and tortured during a brutal interrogation process that lasted several days. 'They tried to get me to reveal details of who I knew in the MDC. There was blood all over my body.' Kulinji thinks around 40 soldiers worked him over.

'I went to hell in that place,' he said. 'They used electricity on my legs and under my tongue. After a while I couldn't feel pain any more. My body is now covered in scars. For some time I couldn't walk.'

He was left for dead in a pit before being found by a 'Good Samaritan' who got him to hospital. Kulinji was unconscious for four days before being transferred by the hospital to a safe house. From there he fled Zimbabwe for the UK in 2003, after six months spent convalescing.

A committed Christian, Kulinji has no doubts about why he did not die. 'I managed to survive because of the grace of God,' he says.

Last week Kulinji was forced to revisit his darkest day. The British government rejected his claim for asylum and placed him in Campsfield detention centre in Oxfordshire, from where he was due to be removed to Zimbabwe's neighbouring country, Malawi. He was due to go yesterday, but the Home Office relented after massive protests. But it is only a temporary delay.

Kulinji has now become the human face of a growing political battle between the government and those who say that deportations to Zimbabwe, given the horrors of the country, should be suspended.

The decision to send him to Malawi made little sense. A Zimbabwean national, Kulinji was unlikely to be accepted by its neighbour.

Worse, the country has clear links with the Mugabe regime. In recent months a number of Zimbabweans sent to Malawi have ended up in the hands of Mugabe's soldiers. Simon Phiri, an asylum seeker who was removed from Britain earlier this year, was picked up by the Zimbabwean authorities when his plane touched down in Malawi. He was subsequently interrogated. His whereabouts now are unknown.

Kulinji, 33, is on anti-depressants and is still in pain as a result of his beatings. His supporters claim the decision to force him to leave Britain has placed his life in jeopardy, and represents a clear breach of the Geneva Convention.

Days before the British government ordered Kulinji's removal, bulldozers had razed his hometown district of Mabvuku, a hotbed of opposition to the Mugabe regime. Several of Kulinji's family lost their homes in the assault. As a result, 15 of his relatives are now cramped in one small house. 'One toilet. One bathroom. Seven kids go to school in the morning, three adults go to work in the afternoon and three in the evening. You cannot imagine what it's like.' The bulldozers were an attempt by Mugabe to cow the opposition. 'Everyone who is in opposition politics is in Mabvuku,' Kulinji says.

Despite what has happened to him, Kulinji says he has no regrets about standing up to Mugabe. 'When the MDC was formed it didn't take me two minutes to join. I just saw a blank future for Zimbabwe. We needed a change. That is why I had to join the Movement for Democratic Change. I don't regret joining, although I was brutalised. I was prepared to die for a change. I will still fight for that change until it comes.'

But Kulinji's continued opposition to Mugabe's Zanu-PF government means he remains a target, even within Britain. Kulinji was well known for leading protests against the regime outside the Zimbabwean embassy in London, something that is unlikely to have escaped Mugabe's intelligence network. Zanu-PF agents are thought to have infiltrated a number of anti-Mugabe movements in the UK from where they provide briefings back to the Mugabe regime.

The Home Office, too, had been made aware that Kulinji was vulnerable. It had been sent a letter from the MDC confirming Kulinji's role in opposing Mugabe. It was also aware that the US State Department had produced a report detailing what had happened to his family. Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, had even taken the unprecedented step of asking the British government not to send Kulinji back.

But even without the documents, the decision to remove Kulinji appeared harsh as the political climate changed throughout last week. Only days after Kulinji had been told he was being removed, the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, had urged African leaders to 'recognise the scale of the horror' that is now taking place in Zimbabwe.

'Zimbabweans are deprived of their democratic and human rights, facing the consequences of chronic economic misrule, and grappling with severe food shortages,' Straw said.

'Over the last three weeks the Mugabe regime has launched a brutal crackdown on some of the most vulnerable Zimbabweans, including inhabitants of urban shanty settlements and informal traders.'

Watching the pictures of the bulldozers flattening Mabvuku on television, Kulinji became increasingly alarmed. 'It was another form of torture, a waiting game.' Even the austere surroundings of Campsfield seemed preferable to a forced return to Zimbabwe. 'I wouldn't mind if I could stay in this detention centre, just as long as I am safe,' Kulinji said.

His plight drew concerns from human rights groups and, almost overnight, Kulinji found himself becoming a symbol of opposition to the government's asylum policy.

'It is outrageous that the victims of Mugabe's brutality are being arrested and locked up by the British government. The Home Secretary is doing Mugabe's dirty work. He is perpetuating the abuse of people who have already suffered imprisonment, torture and the murder of their loved ones,' said Peter Tatchell, a veteran opponent of Mugabe's regime.

The Lords joined in. Baroness Park described the situation as 'indefensible' and called on the government to return 'not one single' asylum seeker to Zimbabwe while the current situation continues.

As the week progressed, scores of the 106 Zimbabweans held in Britain's asylum centres across the UK went on hunger strike to protest at Kulinji's fate. The situation started to turn ugly. The United Network of Detained Zimbabweans reported that several asylum seekers being held at Yarl's Wood in Hertfordshire had been assaulted while they were being escorted to airports for removal.

There were reports that immigration officials were trapping Zimbabwean couples at wedding ceremonies and forcing them on to planes to Harare. The hunger strike started to grow. 'We are dead already,' one of those refusing food declared.

MPs joined the fray. Tory MP Edward Garnier wrote to the Home Office on Kulinji's behalf. Labour's Kate Hoey, who recently visited Zimbabwe undercover to gather evidence against the Mugabe regime, tabled a parliamentary question asking for Kulinji not to be removed. 'For the Home Office to continue removing Zimbabweans at the same time the Foreign Office is issuing warnings is ludicrous,' Hoey told The Observer. 'It's hardly joined-up government.'

The Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, made a tearful plea for the British government to halt the removals as concerns about the situation spilled on to the front pages. In the face of the mounting backlash, the government blinked. Kulinji would not be deported, the Home Office said, until his case had been examined. Shortly after the announcment it pushed out a statement emphasising that it would not send anyone back to a foreign country if it believed their lives were in danger.

'We categorically condemn human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and are committed to providing protection to those Zimbabweans in genuine fear of persecution,' said the Home Office minister Tony McNulty.

'All asylum applications, including every application from Zimbabwe, are considered on their individual merits in accordance with our international obligations. An independent appeals process ensures that this process is properly observed in every case.'

But despite the assurance, Kulinji's fate - along with that of scores of other Zimbabwean nationals held in Britain's asylum centres - remains uncertain. Several Zimbabweans are due to be removed soon and the government is adamant it will not bow to calls to suspend the policy.

As he awaits an uncertain future, Kulinji expresses hopes that he will indeed return to Zimbabwe, once Mugabe has gone. 'I will fight for the Movement for Democratic Change until this regime goes. I love my country so much. I want to return so that we can build a democratic country. I hope that one day God will have mercy on Zimbabwe.'